Linda Cole was following one car behind Kathryn Wilderotter, her partner of almost 12 years, on Nov. 13 when Wilderotter had an epileptic seizure and crashed her vehicle into a pole on Maple Avenue in Takoma Park.

Cole raced to the emergency room entrance of nearby Washington Adventist Hospital, where she asked a desk attendant to let her see her partner.

The answer she got was both unexpected and discriminatory, according to a complaint the Takoma Park couple filed in January with federal health authorities.

“The woman just looked up at me and said, ‘No, you can not go back,’” Cole said. She said she didn’t push for an explanation because she was in a state of shock after witnessing the accident.

About five to 10 minutes later, Cole identified herself again and received the same response. About five to 10 minutes after that, Wilderotter’s sister arrived.

“She walks up and she says ‘Hi, [Kathryn] Wilderotter's been admitted. I'm her sister.’ And the woman immediately said, ‘Oh we have family here now,’” Cole said. “She hit the buzzer and then opened the door.”

Washington Adventist Hospital President Joyce Newmyer said the incident was not a case of discrimination but simply a missed opportunity to communicate the hospital’s emergency department visitor procedures. The hospital’s policy is to first check with the care team to make sure a family member can visit a patient.

“In this case, once the care team cleared visitors for the patient, family members were waiting to see the patient,” Newmyer said. “At that time, all of the family members waiting were allowed to go back to the patient care of our emergency department.”

But Wilderotter, 37, and Cole, 51, said they’ve heard from others who didn’t have to wait to visit family, even in emergency situations. Wilderotter also said the doctor told her Cole was in the waiting room, at which point Wilderotter asked to see her.

Wilderotter said Dean Teague, Washington Adventist Hospital’s Vice President for Operations, contacted her six weeks after the incident with a different explanation. Teague said the woman who denied Cole access was a new employee who didn’t know hospital policy. Teague later said the employee was not new and had been at the hospital for about a year.

The couple has filed a complaint with the Joint Commission, the main hospital accreditation organization, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Last year, federal regulations went into effect that prohibit all hospitals participating in Medicaid and Medicare programs from denying hospital visitation rights based on a number of factors, including sexual orientation.

Newmyer said all hospital employees participate in annual education on Patient Rights, including equal rights of all persons. After looking into the incident, Newmyer said the hospital believes front desk staff followed appropriate procedures, though those procedures could have been communicated better.

“We feel badly that this happened,” Newmyer said. “It’s our policy and our practice that we don’t discriminate against anyone. I feel terrible that this situation happened.”

The Human Rights Campaign, a national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, on Thursday called on the hospital to review its policies on hospital visitation. Washington Adventist Hospital was a non-responder in HRC’s 2011 Healthcare Equality Index, a survey of healthcare policies and practices related to LGBT patients and their families.

Newmyer said she never saw that survey and the hospital would complete the 2012 survey after receiving it Friday. Wilderotter said she doesn’t feel comfortable going to Washington Adventist again, but wants to ensure her partner would be able to visit her in the case of another emergency.

“We live in a very progressive community. It’s shocking to us that this could happen in this community,” Wilderotter said. “It’s incumbent upon us to come out and fight for this.”

akraut@gazette.net